Studies and Topical Reviews

Anderson, Caryn L. Electronic Resource Usage Statistics: Defining a Complex Problem (May 2006) [unpublished]

This document was originally conceived as a research proposal to provide a comprehensive review of all the interconnected components that affect the measurement of e-resource usage. It was anticipated that such a review would generate a thorough definition of the problem set, from which an integrated research and development agenda could be intelligently crafted. It is unlikely that this review will ever be conducted as it was fully proposed. However, this proposal does provide a useful overview. It may help newcomers to e-resource usage statistics to gain an understanding of the many aspects involved. It should also help them to effectively explain the complexities to others.

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Anderson, Caryn L. "No number stand alone...: A report on 'Online Usage Statistics: Current Trends and Future Directions'." NFAIS Online Newsletter 46, no. 5 (September-October 2004). Available from: http://www.nfais.org/events/event_details.cfm?id=26

This articles summarizes the one-day workshop, which included over 60 individuals representing vendors and publishers, academic institutions, government agencies and libraries, corporate information managers, professional associations, public libraries and other library related service and consulting operations. Sessions explored usage statistics issues in regards to standards, user needs, technology, legal issues, and case studies and perspectives from various sectors.

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Blecic, Deborah D., Joan B. Fiscella, and Stephen Wiberley. "The measurement of use of Web-based information resources: an early look at vendor-supplied data." College & Research Libraries 62, no. 5 (2001).

This article marks a key early point in studies of e-resources usage statistics. Using the ICOLC guidelines, which were the basically the first attempt at standardizing usage statistics, the authors provide "the lay of the land" in e-resource usage statics. They offer early recommendations that reflect the pre-pubescent state of the field at the time while accurately tagging pivotal issues that have become both key elements of the COUNTER standard and ongoing debates.

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Blummer, Barbara. "Electronic Resource Management Systems." Cites & Insights 5, no. 3 (February 2005). Available from (PDF): http://cites.boisestate.edu/civ5i3.pdf

During the January 2005 Midwinter meeting of ALA, the Electronic Resources Interest Group of the ALCTS Division of ALA sponsored a forum on the "Electronic Resource Management Systems" being developed by Ex Libris and Innovative. Presentations by University of California-San Diego, MIT and Harvard outline their processes and experiences with the developing ERM products. The article about the session, published in Cites and Insights (vol.5 , issue 3) and written by Barbara Blummer of the Center for Computing Sciences, begins on page 23. Article also linked from the Initiatives & Forums page, and links to Ex Libris and Innovative product information on the web are linked from the ERM Tools page.

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Cohen, Laura B. "A two-tiered model for analyzing library Website usage statistics, part 1: Web server logs." Portal 3, no. 2 (2003).

Cohen focuses on usage statistics gathered internally via web server log file analysis. She addresses web site usage generally, but her analysis and recommendations can contribute to strategies for analyzing electronic resources specifically.

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Duy, Joanna, and Liwen Vaughan. "Usage data for electronic resources: A comparison between locally collected and vendor-provided statistics." Journal of Academic Librarianship 29, no. 1 (2003).

Vendor provided data were compared with locally collected data. Usage patterns were similiar, but actual usage figures varied. The variations were explained by the complexity of e-resource packaging and the multiple access points for users as opposed to revealing any malefeasance on the part of vendors.

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Fowler, David C., Editor. Usage Statistics of E-Serials. Haworth Series on Serials Librariahship and Continuing Resources. Haworth Press. Forthcoming.

This publication is currently under development, but is worth noting given the dearth of monographs in the area of e-resource usage statistics. Essay subjects to be edited for this compilation may include: utilization of statistics, cost evaluations, strategies for negotiating with vendors, standardization, current and future trends, licensing, consortia problems, and deriving/collecting statistics locally. For more information, please contact Dave Fowler at dfowler@iastate.edu.

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Luther, Judy. White Paper on Electronic Journal Usage Statistics. Washington, DC: Council on Library and Information Resources, (2000). Available from: http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub94/contents.html#about

Commissioned by the Council on Library and Information Resources, Luther provides a comprehensive look at the challenges of usage statistics for electronic journals. She interviews academic librarians, vendors, publishers, consortia and others. While this paper is limited by its focus on e-journals and the fact that it pre-dates the COUNTER intiative, it provides an essential foundation for the review of the practice of collecting, analyzing and utilizing usage statistics.

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Miller, R. Schmidt, S. "E-Metrics: measures for electronic resources." Serials 15, no. 1 (2002).

This paper describes the ARL E-Metrics pilot project with 24 libraries to begin to standardize measurements of e-resources. The authors describe "issues identified, lesssons learned, possibilities and challenges." It is a definining document for the project, now collecting data for its third year.

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Online usage statistics: a publisher's guide. New York: Association of American Publishers, Professional/Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division, 2004. Available from: http://www.publishers.org/conference/pubinfo.cfm?PublicationID=10

This publication was being promoted at the October 2004 workshop "Online Usage Statistics: Current Trends and Future Directions in Meeting User Need" sponsored by NFAIS (National Federation of Abstracting and Indexing Services). It has not yet been reviewed, but promotional materials indicate that the contents include essays from various authors recognized for their contributions to the field (including Jeff (Wonsik) Shim, Peter Shepherd and Carol Tenopir from the academic side, as known to this author).

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Shepherd, Peter T. "COUNTER: from conception to compliance." Learned Publishing 16, no. 3 (2003).

Peter Shepherd has authored many articles describing the impetus, history, purposes, development and achievements of the COUNTER endeavor. This article is among the most recent and provides some of the broadest coverage.

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For further information, please see the main ERUS page, or contact Caryn Anderson at caryn.anderson@simmons.edu.